Return of the Jedis- A new year and a return to the second half of the competition. The perfect opportunity to begin our ascent from fifth position to top of the table. It all starts here.... Game preparation, the changing rooms.... Coach Pras gave a Yoda like team talk inspiring us with her wise words of wisdom and encouragement, creating an inner belief within the team. Let’s just say "The force was strong with us." Excited, our team of PHC Jedis were ready to do to do battle against Wallingford, with our light sabers (metaphorically speaking). We came out and dominated the game in every aspect; if you were to break down into statistics we had 99% of the possession, territory, and continuous circle penetrations and penalty corners. But where were the goals?... With patience and passing and playing like a team we found our first goal of the year, through Cappy a.k.a Helen Taylor who from the right smashed the ball from the top of the circle finding the corner and putting herself on the score sheet. After continuous pressure and the roar and welcomed return of Becky "Take no prisoners” Alltree we found ourselves lined up for a penalty corner. Becky had that glint in her eye and that only meant one thing GOAL TIME. Cracking the ball from the top of the D, she banged home….nothing but corner and gave us our second goal. A great way to return from injury, and done it in style. Unfortunately.. somehow they managed to get a goal, a little against the run of play with a quick turner over and a well-constructed team goal they pulled one back. Heading into half time 2-1 up. So undeterred and ready to really take it to them in the second we did just that, a strong start and some great balls from the back, power penetrations from the mid field and fantastic leading up front, we were rewarded with a penalty corner. Alex Earnshaw holding her position at left split had locked and loaded her hockey stick and with subtle left lay off from the bracket she fired off the ball into the back board BOOM 3-1. The game was played at a high intensity and was fun to play and one would say a real crowd pleaser. After some close calls and countless hitting the posts Rhianna Buchanan got in on the action and with a sneaky slip pass from Laura, she dragged and chanced a shot from the right at the top of the D and made it 4-1. Not content on just one goal Rhianna got in on the action again, when hanging out on the left split in a penalty corner Becky slipped her the ball unable to take a stick shot, dribbled a little and reversed stick chipped over the goal keeper... Many would say a fluke, but speaking to her, it was exactly what she had intended to do, she said. So this brought the score to 5-1 and with only a couple of minutes to go this was our full time score. The game was played in good spirits and happiness all around the only controversy came at Teas when awarding. A great start to 2014 for PHC Chiswick Ladies 1's!!! MoM: Jen Romano - fantastic work rate and relentless in defence and fantastic in attack. DoD: Rhianna Buchanan for the reasons "just cos," and "yeah Rhi hahaha," one would argued that these were not good enough reasons, but like a two year old kicking and screaming, she had her sulk and debated, but to no avail, but found solace in her black gold (diet coke).